Vancouver beat the New York Rangers and the Flyers -- the two top teams
in the Atlantic Division -- on the road in consecutive games. They also
defeated the NHL-leading Ottawa Senators before going to New York.

"We want to play well against the East," Carter said. "We have a lot of
pride and we want to show we're one of the top teams in the West."

"We just got to suck it up," Kapanen said. "Obviously, it gets harder
and harder when guys are going down. Hopefully, we'll get some of the
guys back pretty soon."

Naslund tied it at 3 when his shot from the side of the net hit off a
defenseman's skate in the crease and went past Esche.

Carter made it 4-3 just 37 seconds later, scoring from in front after a
giveaway.

Several minutes later, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock pulled Esche for Antero Niittymaki. It didn't appear Esche was injured at the time,
but Hitchcock said he hurt his groin again. Esche already missed time
with a groin injury this season.

Carter scored on the first shot against Niittymaki to give Vancouver a
5-3 lead.

"This was a good win for us, a good confidence builder and a measuring
stick," Naslund said.

Kapanen scored during a scramble in front with 1:26 left, but the Flyers
couldn't tie it, despite getting a few chances from in close after
pulling the goalie for an extra skater.

"He was a difference-maker in the third period," Canucks coach Marc
Crawford said.

Knuble gave Philadelphia a 3-2 lead on his 14th goal in the second
period. His slap shot from along the right boards hit off Auld and
trickled in.

Johnsson made it 2-1 in the second. Handzus led a 4-on-2 break, and slid
a pass across to Johnsson, who stopped the puck with his skate and
slapped a shot by Auld. Baumgartner tied it at 2 on a slap shot that hit
off Knuble and skipped past Esche.

Handzus followed up his own shot to put the Flyers ahead 1-0. The
Canucks tied it at 1 when Linden's shot through a screen went in.

"It seemed like every mistake we made went in our net. We deserved a
better fate," Hitchcock said. "We had a ton of things go right. We
outshot them. We outchanced them. We outplayed them, but they're an
opportunistic team and they took advantage of the mistakes we made.
That's what good teams do."

Notes

Richards' injury initially was called a concussion, but Hitchcock said
that's not definite. Carter needed several stitches after getting hit
in the ear with the puck. The status of both players and Esche is
uncertain.

Josh Gratton was called up from Philadelphia's AHL affiliate,
becoming the 16th player who played for the Phantoms since last season
to appear with the Flyers this year.

Vancouver is 4-0 against the Eastern Conference.

The Flyers are 66-27-13 against Vancouver.

Seventeen of Philadelphia's 19 home games have been sellouts.

The start was pushed back a half-hour when poor weather and traffic
forced many Flyers players to arrive late.

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Trevor Linden (center) is joined by Nolan Baumgartner (4) and Bryan Allen (5) after his goal.
(Getty Images)